Maze mystery

DOING nothing can cost a heck of a lot of money. An Assembly question from the Alliance’s Trevor Lunn this week revealed that the cost to the taxpayer – that is you, me and almost the rest of the population – of the largest vacant property in the civilised world has been £12.5m.

Even if you take out the £5m spent decontaminating the Maze site that still leaves £7.5m of diddly squat, nothing, nada and little else done on the huge site outside Lisburn…

The former jail is a testament, not to the former prisoners, not to the former prison officers, and not even to those whose lives ended within the walls of the Maze.

Instead, it is a testament to the complete and utter failure of 108 people and their appointed Ministers to get off their proverbial rear ends and make a decision without the need for consultant reports, feasibility studies, and general stalling exercises.

The trivial nature of some of the arguments for and against assorted developments would shame a primary school child – and mingled amidst it all is the mire of sectarian stupidity.

Here are the three decisions that need to be made:

· Decision one – sell it or keep it

· Decision two – keep it then agree to do something with it

· Decision three – do something useful with it, or split it into lots of useful wee bits.

Just make a decision!